Six-in-Ten (59%) Canadians Report Having Signed an Organ Donor Card or Drivers License Donor Designation

Toronto, ONTARIO - According to a poll conducted on behalf of Discovery Health Channel by Ipsos-Reid, six in ten (59%) Canadians have either signed an organ donation card or the portion of their drivers license designating some or all of their organs for donation.

• Residents of British Columbia (71%) are more likely than those in all other regions to have designated some or all of their organs for donation. The rates of this action in Ontario (60%), Alberta (58%) and Quebec (57%) are slightly lower. While, only half of those in Atlantic Canada (50%) or Saskatchewan and Manitoba (48%) have actively made this decision regarding organ donation.
• Two-thirds of Canadians between 18 and 34 (62%) and 35 and 54 (65%) have signed their organ donation card or designated their organs for donation on that portion of their drivers license. This compares to half (49%) of Canadians 55 years of age and older who have done so.
• Three-quarters (74%) of Canadians from households with incomes of $60,000 and above have designated their organs for donation. This compares to 58% of those with household incomes of between $30,000 and $60,000 and only 47% of those from households with income of less than $30,000.
• Education level appears to be a factor with Canadians who have post-secondary (64%) or university (65%) education more likely than those with a high school (55%) or less than high school education (37%) to have signed an organ donation card.
• Men (59%) and women (58%) are equally as likely to have signed an organ donation card or the portion of their drivers license designating the donation of their organs.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between March 15th and March 21st, 2002 on behalf of Discovery Health Channel. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

To view the complete release and tables, please download the attached PDF files.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900